BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVES ANNAPOLIS PENINSULA REDISTRICTING PLAN FOR 2017-2018 SCHOOL YEAR

The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County tonight approved a sweeping redistricting plan for the Annapolis Peninsula, changing attendance boundaries for eight of the Annapolis cluster’s nine elementary schools and both of its middle schools.

The plan recommended to the Board by Superintendent George Arlotto moves about 400 students to better utilize space in facilities across the peninsula and reduce overcrowding issues. It is essentially identical to the plan unanimously endorsed by a parent redistricting committee, which crafted it in part to establish a more neighborhood feel to school attendance areas.

The committee conducted a series of public meetings as it crafted its recommendation. Anne Arundel County Public Schools staff held a community briefing on Dr. Arlotto’s plan, and the Board of Education solicited public comment at a public hearing last month.

The plan approved by the Board consists of:

altering the boundaries of elementary schools in the Annapolis cluster in the 2017-2018 school year.

shifting Mills-Parole Elementary School to feed into Annapolis Middle School in the 2017-2018 school year.

moving students from two neighborhoods north of the Severn River from Annapolis Elementary School to Arnold Elementary School, as well as some students from Germantown Elementary School to Annapolis Elementary School, in the 2019-2020 school year.

There are two grandfathering clauses in the plan:

Students who are currently fourth-graders and who would be redistricted under the plan will have the option to remain at their current schools for the 2017-2018 school year. Students who live in the Mills-Parole Elementary School attendance area as it exists in the current school year and who are now seventh-graders at Bates Middle School will have the option of remaining at Bates for the 2017-2018 school year.